If you thought this year's study by the Onondaga Citizens League was a step toward tearing down Interstate 81 and replacing it with a tree-lined boulevard through Syracuse, think again. It wasn't the last word, or even the first word, in deciding whether to demolish the half-century-old highway. All that work lies ahead.

Last week, the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council unveiled a blueprint to address what it calls "The I-81 Challenge." The SMTC wants to find a solution everyone can live with -- by, say, 2017 at the latest. Meanwhile, it wants to make sure all stakeholders are consulted and everyone who wants to contribute is heard. Even before that, it's about discovering how Syracuse sees itself and its future -- what values and concerns take top priority in and around the urban core.

Starting next month, the SMTC aims to convene a series of invitation-only focus groups to concentrate on the decision-making process itself. Represented among the 20 or so groups are stakeholders who were not front-and-center in the 1940s and 1950s, when I-81 was cutting its path through the city -- like downtown residents, and environmentalists who didn't have laws back then to require impact studies.

By early next year, the SMTC should be hosting public meetings to expand the conversation. By the following year, it expects to have a range of options, to be winnowed down to the most promising alternatives. Those alternatives would be subject to more development and further public review before a final decision is made and construction begins.

The SMTC's James D'Agostino says the ultimate solution may be something no one thought of yet. It could be a hybrid, combining a partial tear-down with a reinvented public transit system and redesigned urban spaces.

What is D'Agostino's own inclination? "My opinion doesn't really matter," he says. He sees the SMTC as the convener and moderator of the community discussion. He also hopes the SMTC can guide an inclusive conversation to consensus.

In a way, failure to reach a decision is the worst decision of all. To see the results of "non-decision," visit the Gowanus Expressway that links the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. For decades, New York City has been arguing with itself over what to do about the aging highway -- while work crews have been patching and repairing it and costs have mounted.

Central New Yorkers can do better, D'Agostino thinks. Now it's up to you to prove him right.